The Computerised Land Re-Allotment Process in Turkey and the Netherlands in Multi-Purpose Land Consolidation Projects

SUMMARY A main objective of the Turkish Government is a decrease in socio-economic differences in specific areas in the country. Land consolidation is considered to be an effective instrument to offer better opportunities for higher agricultural production, improved income for farmers and family, better infrastructure and improved livelihood in rural areas. In the coming years 5-6 million hectares of rainfed agricultural area will be consolidated and 3.5 million hectares will be irrigated. In the latter establishment of irrigation schemes will go hand in hand with the land consolidation instrument. Land consolidation will contribute to the improvement of the agrarian structure as well as including environmental issues (e.g., biodiversity conservation, landscape values and cultural heritage). In the Netherlands considerable experience in land consolidation was gained with an approach that changed over time from primarily the improvement of agrarian structure and farm enlargement to a comprehensive integrated approach including agriculture, environment and recreation. This integrated approach is what the responsible Ministries in Turkey are seeking. Although there are many similarities in the land re-allotment process, there are also major differences. In Turkey temporary rights are not considered, whereas in the Netherlands both ownership and temporary rights (e.g., leasehold) are considered because this concerns the rights of farmers with actual production in the area. To combine land consolidation with irrigation projects, DSI and TRGM are in need of specific techniques and methods for optimising the land re-allotment process. Use of computers in this process is common, though the current software and process are being reexamined in order to improve and modernise procedures. In the Netherlands, a set of computer tools is used in a fully automated process. These tools include standard GIS and a dedicated software application TRANSFER used to optimise the land re-allotment process. This implies the calculation of the optimal balance between claims, expressed in alternative preferences for the location of available farmland, and values, available in so-called "blocks" in the project area. Especially TRANSFER has drawn the attention of the Turkish Ministries as the design of the new re-allotment plan is currently executed manually. A combination of standard GIS functionality with TRANSFER will be most supportive to streamline the process in Turkey. This combination, comprising functionality for dynamic and value-based calculation for the location of new boundaries, will improve the process notably in terms of time and costs and the end-result of the designed re-allotment plan. The next step will be to test TRANSFER in the Turkish context.